William N. Sullivan

Sullivan was attached to the Air Transport Command, after three months at Wright Field, and assigned to train personnel in the use of the newly-developed aerosol insecticide at U.S. air bases serving the North Africa and India theaters,. During the tour of duty, he traveled throughout British West Africa, North Africa and Karachi, India (now part of Pakistan), in charge of disinsection of U.S. planes to prevent their carrying the malaria-bearing anopheles gambia mosquito and other insects to South American air bases. After 18 months of service overseas, he was transferred to the Army Air Force Center at Orlando, FL, to develop methods of controlling mosquitoes in jungle areas by airplane spraying. In July 1946 he served as a radiological monitor on atomic bomb tests at the Southwest Pacific atoll of Bikini. Released to inactive duty as a Major in the U.S. Army Air Force in August 1947, he returned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine where he spent the remainder of his career, continuing to specialize in aircraft disinsection.

The majority of Sullivan’s career was with the United States Department of Agriculture (May 18, 1931 – May 5, 1942, and July 21, 1947 – June 30, 1978). He served in the United States Army Air Force during and after World War II (May 5, 1942 – July 21, 1947), entering as a commissioned 1st Lieutenant and rising to Major before being honorably discharged.

In the late 1930s, the first of Sullivan’s scientific innovations occurred as a result of his interest in the emergence of global air transportation and the possible damage that aircraft travel could do by spreading insects dangerous to humans, crops, and animals. At that time, a crude hand sprayer was used to disperse a solution of pyrethrum in kerosene with the hope of killing some of the insect hitchhikers. Sullivan joined with Dr. Lyle D. Goodhue, an accomplished chemist, to develop improved methods for disinsecting aircraft. Theirs first effort involved burning a mixture of pyrethrum, corn stalks, and sodium nitrate in the presence of house flies. The kill was satisfactory, but too much of the insecticide was destroyed by burning. Dripping the solution on the heated surface of a hotplate gave better results, and splashing was overcome by spraying the solution on a hotplate. The heat produced a fine mist or aerosol that was 20 times more effective against house flies than the original burning method. This principle was widely used in “fogging machines” to control mosquitoes in urban areas, but it was not a practical way for disinsecting aircraft.

William received his early education in the public schools of Lawrence, graduating from Lawrence High School in 1926. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1930 from Massachusetts Agricultural College (MAC), now the University of Massachusetts Amherst and then a Master of Science degree (Entomology Major) in 1939, also from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. William was a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) as an undergraduate student at Massachusetts Agriculture College, and he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army 3rd Cavalry Division, Reserves at graduation.

William N. Sullivan (June 23, 1908 – March 2, 1979) was an American entomologist who is widely credited with co-inventing the aerosol bomb or “bug bomb,” with Lyle D. Goodhue, while employed by the United States Department of Agriculture. The “bug bomb” was developed for aircraft disinsection through the dispersion of insecticide for controlling mosquitoes. The invention proved invaluable in the Pacific Theater during World War II where it was used extensively to control the spread of insect borne disease – primarily malaria – which was causing far more casualties than actual combat.

Sullivan was born on June 23, 1908, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, one of eight children born to Katherine (Lynch) and William N. Sullivan, Sr. between 1898 and 1910. Three of his siblings died at young ages; Katherine as a toddler of unknown causes, Frances as an infant of whooping cough, and Mary at age 20 of tuberculosis.